On Wednesday, The Illinois Department of Transportation announced it had chosen the former Blackhawk route for service between Dubuque and Chicago because of its economic viability. The route, now under Canadian National ownership, would need improvements to the tune of 2.5 million in state funds to get this service going. However, IDOT spokesman Mike Claffey made clear that restoring service in Northwest Illinois is not something that is in the budget right now.

“I can tell you right now that we are focused on the budget process for fiscal year 2008, which starts in July, and to my knowledge this is not a part of that process,”

He also added that part of the Governor’s $3 billion capital plan would only be used to allocate funding for rail service if lawmakers fought for those funds.

Rick Harnish, the executive director for the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, went on to say that

“If passenger rail service is ever really going to come back to Illinois, citizens will have to lobby for it as well.”

I guess the question we should all really be asking ourselves is how badly do we want this? I mean fighting for state funds to improve rail service to make commuting easier; to make the quality of life easier should be a no brainer. What is it going to take for us to realize that? When is enough enough? High speed rail, expanded Amtrak service, these are all things that we should want because things are not getting any better on the highways or in the airports. The environmental issues aside, the point I’m trying to make is that it comes down to common sense. Use the railroads, help the environment. Use the railroads, save money on gas.

Railroads are on the way back, slowly maybe, but the tracks are coming.